If you haven’t already, you first need to download the program here (don’t worry, it’s FREE!) and then save it locally to your computer.

Step 1)

List your debts in the pink area by the order you plan on paying them off following the examples provided (remember, you must delete the example loans first before you can continue!).

You must also fill in the current balance, interest rate (APR), and minimum monthly payment.

REMEMBER: The Free Trial Version only allows you to enter up to 3 different accounts to your debt snowball. Click here to purchase the premium edition of this program and unlock the ability to add up to 20 accounts!

Step 2)

Enter the number of the current month in the blue box (July is the 7th month, etc…)

Step 3)

Enter the current year in the red box.

Step 4)

Any extra money you can squeeze out of your budget each month should go in the bright green “Extra Payment” box below.

Step 5)

Click the “results tab” at the bottom of the page to see the amortization of your debt snowball and your projected DEBT FREE Day!

The Results Page:

When you click the results tab, you will see the screen above.

The first 4 lines across the top show the date of each payment, each month’s growing “snowball payment”, your ongoing extra payments, and any additional “bonus payments” (see below) you intend to make. No matter how far down you scroll, this information stays fixed at the top of the display.

Next you will see balance information for each loan you have made, interest paid, the amount available to pay on the debt, the actual amount paid on the debt, and the new balance after the payment is made.

To determine the day you will be debt free, simply scroll down to the last debt ( if you have listed your debts smallest balance to highest) and follow the “balance” line over until the balance says “Paid Off”! Congratulations this is your debt free day!

***Bonus Payments***

On the “results tab” you can enter an additional bonus payment (on the yellow line) for any individual month you wish.

In the example below we’ll assume you are getting a one time “Christmas Bonus” in December which you intend to add to your debt snowball payment. Just enter 2000 in the “one time bonus payment” box for Dec-09 (or whatever month you expect extra cash) and the spreadsheet automatically updates.

It’s as easy as that! I hope you found this program helpful! If you have any question or comments, please fill out the form at the end of this post and I will try to respond as quickly as I can!

Disclaimer: The program is provided for entertainment purposes only and no warranty is given about it’s accuracy. To be sure your financial concerns are fully addressed, you should seek advice from a professional finance guru of which I am not!

Too Much Debt? Download our free Trees Full of Money Debt Snowball Calculator and see how quickly you can pay off your debt.

143 Responses

Thank you so much! I can now see a light at the end of the tunnel! I think the snowball method is awesome but to find the calculator for it is amazing. Thank you for providing it for Free – You are a true blessing.

This is a great (FREE!) tool. The best spreadsheet I have found. I only wish I would have found it sooner. I am on my way to be debt free and I can see the end in sight! Without this tool I wouldn’t have believed I could really get out of debt.

Emily7 years ago

Thanks for the spreadsheet! I was a little sad to see that our family won’t be debt free for seven years(!) but hopefully we can step up our game now that we know what’s ahead. Thanks again!

This is a really useful tool – great that it is is excel, and can sit on your own computer, and not linked to a third party service provider. I am definitely going to send my readers over here to pick up this neat tool. thanks alot, Mike

Thanks for the comments Marie! I’m currently working on a revised edition of the Debt Snowball Spreadsheet that will allow for this function but I am so busy with family and work right now I just don’t have the time!

I finally got the darn program to download, loaded all of my info, hunted for the ‘results tab’ – and there isn’t one. There is a blurb on the bottom of the screen saying ‘start here’. I give up. I’m going back to the time consuming, but tried & true way – paper & pencil.

Leslie, I’m so sorry about all the trouble you’ve had trying to use the debt snowball spreadsheet. I tried to make it as compatible as possible with as many versions of Excel but without being able to see your computer there’s no real way of determining what the problem is.

Paul6 years ago

Excellent Program! This is exactly what we were looking for.

Good job, Ben.

Paul.

Jose6 years ago

Wow, this spreadsheet is just amazing!!!! I just wanted to say Thank you, and May God Bless you for this gift you have made available to all. I was finally able to see a light at the end of the tunnel, and to tell you the truth, its not as far off as I originally thought.

I am having problems with the sheets. I can download ok but it doesn’t have results tab. Can you help? this is one of the easiest spreadsheets. I coach on success and one of the strongest portions of being successful is reducing debt. Please send me corrected version and also I would like to contact you ref radio talk show interview.
Thank you

(i think i have an old excel)

Tracy6 years ago

Thanks for this! It was a bit humbling to actually see the hole that I have dug for myself…but now that I see it, I can fix it. Thanks again.

Ben, Great Free spreadsheet. I too had problems with the “deleting” of sample information. I got #REF errors on the results tab. What worked for me was to enter my debts over the top of the sample data and then for the extra sample rows I simply typed in “Nothing” for the name of the Debt and put 0’s in the other columns. Works great. I will be debt free in May 2019, I got a lot of College Loan debt. Thanks Again!!

Kim6 years ago

I’m with Stacey, but not clueless, just don’t want to hasle to inputting all the formulas on the Results tab. How can you add more rows to the debts and have them carry over to the Results tab? (yes, there are those of us with more than 24 debts!)

Cecil6 years ago

Thanks for this program. We have used this method, “on paper” to pay down CC’s from 15 to 4. Just seeing it visually and adding our remaining debts, I cannot believe we will be debt free, including our mortgage by 2020 if we follow these suggestions. Our mortgage payment alone runs for another 25 years (2035). WOW!!!!! I’ll pray to my Lord nothing major, $$$$ wise occurs. And if it does we’ll just add it to Debt Snowball.
We have also found that a budget helps, A LOT. Although we use another program, it’s easier to pay all of our obligations at the beginning of the month. We made sure all of the due dates fall between the 15th and 28th. Paying them all at once via online bill pay relieves the headache of paying numerous times a month. Contact your debt holder and ask for a due date change should you feel this may work for you.
I will be passing on this program and your website. Many thanks.

Lynn6 years ago

Ben…this is an excellent effort. From what we have seen out there, your spreadsheet beats all of them hands down — in every single category! Very easy to use and understand (even for those of us that are not excel experts)!! WE LOVE IT!!!! Thanks sooooooo much!!

Kelly6 years ago

Thank you so much! This format is comething I have been attemtping to use, but did’t have workable spreadsheet! After entering all of my info and seeing the exact date I can have my debt paid off has given me peace and motivation. Thank you so much!

Kelly

David6 years ago

Hello,

I just downloaded and filled out your debt snowball worksheet. This is exactly what I am looking for and is very user friendly. I am starting the Dave Ramsey plan this month and have a lot of debt to pay off so its going to take me awhile. I am retired Navy and just wanted to thank you for sharing this. I was wondering if you have a newer or a pay version or is this just out of the kindness of heart. Also wondering if I can just adjust the ongoing “extra” payment at any time in my process and it update accordingly? Again thank you.

Thanks for your comments on my free debt snowball spreadsheet! No, I don’t have a newer version of the program yet. Please feel free to pass it along to your family and friends!!

Yana6 years ago

Thank you sooooooooo much for this spreadsheet!

Jennifer6 years ago

Great snowball spreadsheet, but I have one question. On the results page, the first month doesn’t calculate any interest, even though you would have interest due. Am I entering something wrong?

Paul6 years ago

Ben,

Thanks for the great tool, just what I was looking for! It’s got me excited about budgeting and paying off debt!

So you know, there is a problem where sometimes months repeat. Using your default values columns CE & CF both have “May-16”, for instance. A fix would be to use a formula like =DATE(YEAR(B1),MONTH(B1)+1,DAY(B1))

Beth Walters6 years ago

I followed the directions and for some reason when I try to get the results, it says #value in all of the boxes. Could you please help? I can email you the spreadsheet – maybe it’s an easy fix to change a formula. I just don’t know what to change to fix it. Thanks. Beth

Beth, I too had problems with the “deleting” of sample information. I got #REF errors on the results tab. What worked for me was to enter my debts over the top of the sample data and then for the extra sample rows I simply typed in “Nothing” for the name of the Debt and put 0′s in the other columns. Works great. I will be debt free in May 2019, I got a lot of College Loan debt.

Beth Walters6 years ago

Thanks, Doug, that worked great. Will be out of consumer debt by February 2013 (not mortgage, though). We’ve been working at it since the fall of 2008. Thanks for your help!!!

Keisha6 years ago

My results never loaded on the results page. NOt sure what i did wrong?

Beth Walters6 years ago

Keisha,
Please see Doug’s note above. It helped me and now it works. Hope it works for you. Good luck. Beth

Mitch6 years ago

Hi, thanks for the great spreadsheet. Been sharing it with friends and I would like to know if I should be removing amount I paid that month on the spreadsheet or if this is just to show when i will be debt free? I wasnt able to make the full amount on the payment that was the biggest , and was hoping I can reset it with the amount I paid. Thanks Mitch

Tracie6 years ago

Seriously, thank you. You took all the hard work out of creating this fabulous document. I use Excel for my budget, so I’m familiar with it and may tie the sheets together. I also uploaded it to Google Docs so my partner and I can share the info!

Karen6 years ago

I’ve been searching for a spreadsheet just like this one!!! Thank you so much! I’ve been working so hard to get out of debt and this will help keep me on track, many thanks!